IAU Minor Planet Center

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <base href="/iau/"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/stylesheets/mpc.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/stylesheets/table-sorter.css"> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8"> <link media="all" rel="stylesheet" href="/css/all.css"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/iau/figs/MPClogo16.png"> <meta name="description" content="We are the official body that deals with astrometric observations and orbits of minor planets (asteroids) and comets."> <meta name="keywords" content="astrometry, observations, orbits, minor planets, asteroids, comets, near earth objects, potentially hazardous asteroids"> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery-latest.js"></script>   <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.tablesorter.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" 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node.textContent.trim(); } }); return directTextContent; } listItems.forEach(function (li) { const directText = getDirectTextContent(li); const textLength = directText.length; // Log the length of each item to the console //console.log(`Text: "${li.textContent.trim()}", Length: ${textLength}`); // Apply class based on length if (textLength <= 5) { li.classList.add('short-word'); } else if (textLength <= 10) { li.classList.add('medium-word'); } else { li.classList.add('long-word'); } }); }); </script>  <div id="main">  <li class="yuimenuitemlabel alert"> Processing <a href="/iau/info/MPCOpStatus.html">(Info)</a></li>  <br> <p> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <base href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/info/TempDesDoc.html"> <title>Temporary Minor Planet Designations</title> </head> <body> <center>Quick links : <a href="/iau/mpc.html"> Home Page </a> : <a href="/iau/ContactUs.html"> Contact Us </a> : <a href="/iau/TheIndex.html"> Index </a> : <a href="/iau/MPCSiteMap.html"> Site Map </a> : <a href="/iau/SearchSite.html"> Search Site </a> : <a href="/iau/MPC_Documentation.html"> Documentation </a> </center><p><hr><p> <h1>Temporary Minor Planet Designations</h1> Temporary designations are assigned by observers prior to the assignment of provisional designations by the <a href="/iau/mpc.html"> Minor Planet Center</a>. With the rapid speed of e-mail communication, official provisional designations can be assigned very rapidly and there is no need for temporary designations to be publicised. In the past, when communication was slow, temporary designations were often published. <p> There were a large number of temporary-designation schemes and to give full details on each of them would be a major undertaking. The notes below detail which schemes are included for the purposes of searching and give some examples of valid search strings. <p><hr> <pre> {LETTER} indicates capital letters (one or more, see examples for which schemes allow both) {letter} indicates lowercase letters (one or more, see examples for which schemes allow both) {year} indicates a year {number} indicates a number (one or more numbers) {greek} is a lower-case Greek letter (e.g., alpha or beta) {RN} is a Roman numeral (e.g., I or IX) </pre> For convenience some parts of certain designations are optional. Optional parts are indicated in brackets []. Other parts may be abbreviated as shown. <hr> <pre> Site Format Example(s) Algiers Alger {LETTER} Alger A, Alger CM Alg {LETTER} Alg A, Alg CM Alma-Ata Alma-Ata [Nr.] {number} Alma-Ata Nr. 1 {year} A{number} 1952 A1, A1 Arequipa Arequipa {letter} Arequipa a Areq {letter} Areq a Arequipa {number} Arequipa 17 Areq {number} Areq 17 Belgrade {year} {letter} [(Beograd)] 1956 x (Beograd), 1956 x {letter} x Flagstaff A{number} A0, A7 Heidelberg Wolf [Nr.] {number} Wolf Nr. 18, Wolf 18 Wolf {letter} Wolf u Wolf {greek} Wolf alpha Heid {number} Heid 1, Heid 234 Johannesburg {LETTER} A, E G {number} G 1, G 21 T {number} T 9, T 16 Kyoto-Kwasan {number} 1, 6 {letter} d La Plata [La Plata] {year} {RN} La Plata 1951 I, 1951 I [La Plata] {year} {LETTER} La Plata 1950 G, 1950 G Lick [Asteroid] {LETTER} Asteroid B, B Mount Wilson [Asteroid] {LETTER} Asteroid A, A {LETTER} D Nanking (PMO) P.O. {number} P.O. 32, P.O. 189 PO {number} PO 32, PO 189 Nauchnij (CrAO) N{number} N1 K{number} K1, K3423 Simeis [1942] SIGMA K{number} 1942 SIGMA K1, SIGMA K1 [1942] SIG K{number} 1942 SIG K1, SIG K1 sigma {number} sigma 1, sigma 229 Taunton Taunton {digit} Taunton 83 Tokyo-Mitaka Tokyo {LETTER} Tokyo B Tokyo {letter} Tokyo b Tokyo {number} Tokyo 20 Tokyo {year} {LETTER} Tokyo 1954 D Turku T-{number} T-1, T-774 Uccle {letter} [(Uccle)] p (Uccle), p {letter}{number} [(Uccle)] x2 (Uccle), x2 [{year}] U {number} 1945 U 12, U 12 Washington {year} W {digit} 1917 W 15, 1923 W 21 Yerkes Y.O. {number} Y.O. 23 YO {number} YO 23 </pre> Named objects are referred to as <code>Object {name}</code>. For example, <code>Object Reinmuth</code> or <code>Object Wilson-Wallenquist</code>. <p><hr><p> <a href="/iau/mpc.html"><IMG SRC="/iau/figs/mpc.gif" ALT=""> MPC</a> <a href="/iau/cbat.html"><IMG SRC="/iau/figs/cbat.gif" ALT=""> CBAT</a> <p> <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer"><img border="0" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" height="31" width="88"></a> </p> </body> </html>  </div> </div> </div>  <footer id="footer"> <div class="holder"> <nav class="nav"> <ul> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/about">About</a></li>  <li><a href="https://mpc-service.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals">Helpdesk</a></li>  </ul> </nav> <a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu"> <img src="/images/CfA_Logo_Vertical_CMYK.png" width="110" height="47"></a> <p> <p> <p> <div class="copy">The Minor Planet Center is hosted by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.<center>The Minor Planet Center is funded by NASA.</center></div> </footer> <script type="text/javascript"> $(window).on('load', (function() { $("table").tablesorter(); })); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ var _tag=new WebTrends(); _tag.dcsGetId(); //]]> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ _tag.dcsCustom=function(){ // Add custom parameters here. //_tag.DCSext.param_name=param_value; } _tag.dcsCollect(); //]]> </script> <noscript> <div><img alt="DCSIMG" id="DCSIMG" width="1" height="1" src="//logs1.smithsonian.museum/dcsa7yzrmbdzpxzrosrn4tyep_5i1d/njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=9.4.0&dcssip=www.minorplanetcenter.net"/></div> </noscript> </body> </html>

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